Meet: Siji

I met this nice cab driver on my way to meet up with Joe and company for karaoke. Driver in Chinese is Siji, so I will call him Siji.

(I must preface this by saying that in China, it is considered beautiful to be pale and "odd" to be tanned.)

Our conversation went a little something like this:
Siji: Where are you from?
Me: Beijing. Can't you tell?
S: You sound like a Beijinger but you don't look it.
M: Why, because I'm dark?
S: But an unusual dark. Bronze dark. I've never seen that color before. I didn't think it was possible.
M: This is how I get when I go outside. I get tanned easily.
S: Why don't you cover up? Wear long sleeves? Carry an umbrella?
M: Because it's so hot I could faint.
S: You wear too little clothing. But I guess if you get dark, you get dark. It's natural beauty.
M: I live in America where it's good to be tanned.
S: But Americans are all so pale!
M: Because they can't tan as easily.
S: What do you do in America?
M: I work in advertising (I hate telling people I'm an actor because then I have to explain everything I've done and frankly, nobody really cares about that one time I was on TV hosting that one thing about that one event)
S: Advertising? That sounds so easy. I've thought about advertising a lot. I come up with great ideas. It's so easy. I come up with things while eating watermelon. How much do you make a month?
M: A million dollars.
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I love having conversations with cab drivers in Beijing. They love to chat because they're so bored all day sitting in traffic. Also, they may know where everything is but have never been inside anything. They love to inquire about the different places I go to. If you get a chance to go to Beijing, try to have a conversation with a cab driver (some speak excellent English).